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RECONSECRATION 



SPEECH BY 

JOHN MAYNARD HARLAN 

Before the Creve Coeur Club 
Peoria, Illinois 

February 22, 1917 






APR 6 ly'i, 



RECONSECRATION. 

On the anniversary of the birth of Washington, the thonghts 
of Americans torn naturally to the times of the foundation 
of our Eepublic. We contemplate reverently the high spirit, 
the stubborn courage, the unselfish devotion of the revolu- 
tionary patriots. They inspire and exalt us. We resolve 
that the sacrifices and sufferings of the fathers shall not, in 
our time at least, be rendered vain. We tell ourselves that 
what Washington created, we shall perpetuate at all costs 
and at every hazard. We determine that we shall hand down . 
to our posterity the independence given us by the men of 
'seventy-six, complete and perfect just as we received it. We 
silently dedicate ourselves to the principles of liberty set 
forth in the Declaration of Independence. We feel ourselves 
ready to do all and suffer all, to uphold, anywhere and every- 
where, the sovereignty of the United States, as against any 
and every challenger. On Washington's Birthday, we, as a 
nation, are as great, spiritually, as we are materially. We 
are lifted out of ourselves, by reflecting upon the lives and 
works of the mighty and imperishable dead. 

With too many of us, however, the access of patriotism 
which we experience on Washington's Birthday is fitful and 
fleeting. It is not of the stuff of which Washington's patriot- 
ism was made. It is a mere emotion. On the morrow, it is 
fading. On the next succeeding day, it is dead and forgot- 
ten. It induces no action. It is not practical patriotism. It 
does not lead us actually to imitate the deeds of Washington 
and his contemporaries. It does not cause us to render any 
service to our country. We must draw from this Washing- 
ton's Birthday a more serviceable inspiration. Surrounded 
now by national perils, it would seem that we should l)e able 



I 



to accomplisli that. The opportunity for service to our coun- 
try is wide. The necessity for service is imperative. While 
under the sjiell of Washington's great example, let us act. We 
must transmute our patriotic feelings into patriotic deeds. 

Our first great act of service to our country must be the es- 
tablishment of universal compulsory military service and 
training". Our military strength is unorganized. We must 
organize it. We must make it available for use. Measured 
with reference to the military establishments of other nations, 
our countrj^ is defenseless. No man worthy of the name 
''American" would have it continue so. To provide for the 
common defense is our first duty. 

How we should set about performing that duty, we may 
learn from Washington. He undertook the defense of a de- 
fenseless country. When he became Commander in Chief, 
the Colonies had neither trained officers, nor soldiers, nor 
adequate munitions. The trained regular soldiers of the 
enemy were already upon our shores. Washington had only 
militia. 

We today place our principal defensive reliance upoii 
militia. Fatuously and vaingloriously we, or some of us, 
boast that if our country should be attacked the call for a 
million men would go out at sunrise, and at sunset there Avould 
be a million men under arms. Such of us as are so silly as to 
entertain that notion, are beguiled thereto somewhat by the 
example of the men at Lexington. We think that they dropped 
their ordinary pursuits of peace, seized their arms, assembled, 
and were at once transformed as if by magic into troops effi- 
cient to oppose the British regulars. Washington did not 
think so. On August 20, 1775, in a letter written from his 
camp at Cambridge to the superintendent of his plantation 
at Mt. Vernon, Washington referred to the colonial troojDS 
under him. He said, "they are by no means such troops in 



any respect, as yon are led to believe of tliem from the accts. 
which are published, but I need not make myself enemies 
among them, by this declaration, although it is consistent with 
truth." (Writings, Vol. 14, pp. 312-318.)i 

Washington utterly condemned the sort of soldiers upon 
which to-day our country principally relies for its defense. 
"To place any dependence upon militia is assuredly resting 
upon a broken staff," wrote Washington to the President of 
Congress on September 4, 1776, "Men just dragged from 
the tender scenes of domestic life, unaccustomed to the din of 
arms, totally unacquainted with every kind of military skill 
(Avhich being followed by want of confidence in themselves, 
when opposed to troops regularly trained, disciplined, and ap- 
pointed, superior in knowledge and superior in arms), makes 
them timid and ready to fly from their own shadoAvs." (Writ- 
ings, Vol. 4, p. 443.) 

Untrained or half -trained troops will not meet the country's 
need. We shall serve our country badly unless we insist upon 
a thorough military training. There is more to making 
soldiers than merely teaching men evolutions, the manual of 
arms, and the use of weapons. Military organization must 
be effected. Discipline and morale must be established. That 
is the most important of all. It cannot be accomplished except 
by intensive training. 

To attain intensive military training, compulsion is es- 
sential. Men are not going to volunteer for it. Even in the 
midst of war, sufficient recruits cannot be obtained by relying 
solely upon voluntary enlistments. The Colonies resorted to 
drafts. The nation had to resort to drafts during the war of 
1812. Both North and South were driven to conscription in 
the war between the States. Since men will not voluntarily 
become soldiers even in the midst of war, it is the wildest folly 

^ The referenoes to Wjishinstoii's '•Writings" arc to the fourteen-volume 
collection edited by Mr. Worthintctoii Cliaiiiuey Ford, and published by G. P. 
Putnam's Sons (1889) under the title "Writings of George Washington." 



to suppose that they will volunteer in any considerable num- 
ber for adequate intensive training in times of peace. 

The element of our population which is opposed to compul- 
sory military training asserts that anything in the nature of 
conscription is un-American. I deny it. That assertion is a 
mere subterfuge. I prefer to take my Americanism from 
Washington. He repeatedly advocated conscription. Thus 
Washington wrote to the President of Congress on December 
4, 1775: "I am informed that it has been the custom of 
these [New England] provinces in the last war for the legis- 
lative power to order every toAvn to provide a certain quota of 

men for the campaign. This, or some other mode, should be! 

i 
at present adopted, as I am satisfied the men cannot be had' 

without. This Congress will please to take into their im- 
mediate consideration." (Writings, Vol. 3, pp. 259-260.) 

Again, on October 24, 1778, Washington wrote to the Presi- 
dent of Congress: "I believe, however, our surest and only 
certain aids will be derived from drafting. Which I trust may 
and will be done by the States on the recommendation of 
Congress, agreeable to the mode mentioned in my letter to | 
their Committee, when they first honored me with a visit at \ 
Valley Forge." (Writings, Vol. 7, p. 228.) 

There is nothing repugnant to American principles of lib- 
erty in compelling the citizen to prepare to discharge his duty 
effectively to defend his country. And the compulsion must 
be universal, in order that uniformity and equality of service 
may be attained. Our military experts have told us what we 
require. Universal compulsory military service and training 
alone will meet our country's need. 

We must see to it that our legislators shall give us what our 
military experts tell us we ought to have. Our military ex- 
perts are as much a part of the government as are the mem- 
bers of our Congress. We educate them at public expense. 
We organize them into a General Staff. We pay them to 



study our military problems. The country demands that Con- 
gress take their advice. 

That, however, is not all. The country demands that Con- 
gress act in accordance with the advice of our military ex- 
perts, not at some time in the distant future, but immediately. 
The existing Congress should provide for universal compul- 
sory military training before it adjourns on the third of next 
month. We have had a recent illustration on tlie occasion of 
the passage of the Adamson Law, of the alacrity with which 
Congress, when subjected to sufficient pressure, can enact 
legislation without protracted discussion or much, if any, de- 
liberation. Let each of us make it his and her special concern 
to subject Congress to the pressure necessary to make our 
legislators give us universal military training at once. 

This is not the time, or the place, for me to characterize 
the conduct of the government in respect of the Adamson 
Law. If it was right for the government to enact the Adam- 
son Law, under the circumstances which attended its passage, 
it is right that a law providing for universal compulsoiy 
militar}^ service and training should be enacted as expedi- 
tiously as was the Adamson Law. If it was wrong to enact 
the Adamson Law, it would, nevertheless, be right to pass a 
law for universal compulsory service without further debate 
or deliberation. 

The government has had advice as to the necessity for uni- 
versal service from a better informed and more disinterested 
source than that whence came the advice which induced the 
government to enact the Adamson measure. The question of 
universal compulsory service has been much debated in Con- 
gress in the past. The question involved in the Adamson 
Law had never been debated at all. Public attention has been 
focused on the question of universal compulsory service. The 
resignation of Secretary of War Garrison brought the ques- 
tion before the public in dramatic manner. The people have 
discussed it widely. Public opinion has crystallized in favoi 



6 

of universal compulsory military service. That was not 
true as to the matter aff.ectecl by the Adamson Law, 

There is no occasion or excuse for further delay or delibera- 
tion on the part of the government in giving us universal com- 
pulsory military ser^dce and training. And if further delay 
shall ensue, and it shall result that our country shall have to 
enter upon a war without being adequately prepared, the 
names of the men responsible for such delay will be written 
down in American history on the page which now contains 
only the execrated name of Benedict Arnold. 

Those who oppose universal military training assert that 
its adoption would tend to make this nation go to war. That 
is not true. Our tradition is not militaristic. Absolutism is 
militaristic. Democracy is not. The citizen, not the soldier 
is paramount in a democracy. In our past wars, to quote the 
Avords of Washington, "When we assumed the soldier, we did 
not lay aside the citizen." (Writings, Vol. 2, pp. 501-502.) 
We are not warlike. Our national attitude towards war is 
well typified by the spirit in Avhich Washington bequeathed 
his swords to his legatees. "These swords are accompanied," 
said Washington in his will, "with an injunction not to un- 
sheath them for the purpose of shedding blood except it be 
for self-defence, or in defence of their Country and its rights, 
and in the latter case to keep them unsheathed, and prefer 
falling with them in their hands to the relinquishment there- 
of." (Writings, Vol. 14, p. 288.) 

Those wlio profess to fear the rise of a militaristic ten- 
dency in this country if universal compulsory militar}^ service 
shall be established, require only to contemplate the manner 
in which our national leaders, who have possessed military 
power, have put that power aside w]ien the need for its exer- 
cise was at an end. 

AVe see Washington in his farewell orders to the armies of 
the United States saying to his men that "The Commander in 
Chief conceives little is now wanting, to enable the soldier, 



to change the military character into that of the citizen, but 
that steady and decent tenor of behavior, Avhich has generally 
distinguished, not only the army under his immediate com- 
mand, but the ditferent detachments and separate armies, 
through the course of the war." (Writings, Vol. 10, p. 333.) 
We see AVashington's army disperse and exercise as citizens 
that ''steady and decent tenor of behavior" which he expected 
of them. 

We sec Washington taking leave of his officers. That was 
a solemn occasion. It was the end of a comradeship which 
had endured for eight years of bitter trial. The ties which 
bound those men one to another could not have been stronger. 
Self-contained as Washington was, on that farewell his emo- 
tions overcame him. His officers were assembled at Fraunces' 
Tavern in New York. Eaising his glass with trembling hand, 
Washington said to them: "With a heart full of love and 
gratitude I now take leave of you, and most devoutly wish 
your latter days may be as prosperous and happy as your 
former ones have been glorious and honorable." Then he 
drank to them. After a pause, he said: "I cannot come to 
each of you to take my leave, but shall be obliged if you will 
each come and shake me by the hand." The officers ap- 
proached, and one by one with hearts too full for speech, 
silently took their leave. 

Washington surrendered to Congress his commission as 
Commander in Chief. And the extent of subsequent exhibi- 
tion of militaristic tendency, so far as he was concerned, was 
his writing : ''If my commission is not necessary for the files 
of Congress, I should be glad to have it deposited among my 
own papers. It may serve my grandchildren, some fifty or 
an hundred years hence, for a theme to ruminate upon, if they 
should be contemplatively disposed." (Writings, Vol. 10, pp. 
339-340.) Even that request for physical custody of his re- 
signed commission, AVashington did not press. And he never 
got the commission. There was much ado by Congress about 



8 

returning tlie commission to Washington in a gold box. But 
Congress was not less forgetful of its duty then, than often 
it is now. 

Our whole history does not contain an incident to show that 
this nation is, or could l)e made, militaristic in spirit. Every 
source from which Ave derive our Americanism, encourages 
militarism as little as does the example of Washington. Even 
under governmental absolutism, where the soldier takes prece- 
dence of the citizen, universal compulsory military service is 
a recognized hindrance to the desired fostering of militarism 
and a AA-arlike spirit among the people. The German general 
Von Bernliardi wrote his book on ''Germany and the Next 
A¥ar," in 1911. His thesis was that regardless of right and 
wrong, Germany must figlit her way to world predominance. 
He deplored the pacific tendency of the German people which 
disinclined them to accept that ambition. Among other causes 
for the German jDCople's disinclination for war, Von Bern- 
hardi assigned universal military service. He said: "Uni- 
versal military service, too, contributes to t]ie love of peace, 
for war in these days does not merely affect, as formerly, defi- 
nite limited circles, but the Avhole nation suffers alike. All 
families and all classes have to pay the same toll of human 
lives." 

Universal military service Avill make for peace in another 
way. In addition to disinclining us, for the reason suggested 
by Von Bernhardi, to start a Avar, it will disincline other na- 
tions to attack us. Weakness iuAdtes attack. Strength re- 
pels it. It is likely that even noAV other nations esteem our 
courage lightly. They have seen that keeping out of a fight 
is the prime factor in all our policies. 

The rights of our citizens abroad, even our right to regu- 
late our own internal concerns, are subordinated to keeping 
at peace. Japan dictates what persons shall be admitted 
into this country, and Avhat our land tenures shall be. Great P 
Britain dictates what the Panama Canal tolls shall be. We 



I 



may attribute our sacrifices of our right to regulate our own 
affairs to patience, to magnanimity, to a love of justice, to a 
love for humanity, to what we will. Other nations are likely 
to wink at any such explanation of our conduct. They will 
regard us from a practical viewiDoint. Thej^ will attribute 
our supineness to lack of spirit on our part, to cowardice if 
you please. The more currency that view gains, the greater 
the likelihood that we shall be attacked. 

Even if viewed as cowards, however, we shall be somewhat 
less likely to be attacked if prepared to defend ourselves. 
A coward, or one so esteemed, enjoys little security at best. 
Whenever the self-interests of others require, they will in- 
vade his rights. But a strong, muscular coward is a trifle 
safer from aggression than a weak flabby one. Either might, 
conceivably, be driven to such length that he would be forced 
to fight. The strong one could fight. The weak one could 
not. The former will be treated less contemptuously than 
the latter. 

Events have made us the present center of interest of all 
the nations. They are watching to see what we shall do. 
They all have learned by experience. They know what we 
should do. If we do the virile thing and get ready for war, 
we shall be safe. If we shall fail now to organize our mili- 
tary strength, that will be taken as final and conclusive proof 
of our pusillanimity. Attack upon us, and successful attack, 
will then be inevitable sooner or later. 

We may regulate our conduct toward other nations by al- 
truistic considerations for the welfare of mankind. Other 
nations regulate their conduct toward us by practical con- 
siderations for their own welfare. They question only 
whether we have anything they want, and whether it is safe 
to take it. We must so conduct ourselves in this crisis as 
to advertise to all the world that it Avill not be safe hereafter. 
Then, and not until then, shall we be secure and respected 
as a nation. In the words of Washington, "It is no new 



10 

maxim in politics, that for a nation to obtain peace, or insure 
it, it must be prepared for war." (Writings, Vol. 8, p. 336.) 

The establishment of universal compulsory military serv- 
ice, will, however, subserve a higher purpose than merely to 
insure us peace. Just merely to be at peace is not a high 
aspiration. For a nation to be at war may be worthy. For 
it to be at peace may be disgraceful. We hear too much 
about the horrors of war. War's gruesome features receive 
too much emphasis. The moving pictures and the illus- 
trated periodicals bring vividly before us the spectacle of men 
being killed and of mangled bodies scattered in postures of 
grotesque horror over the shattered earth. The suffering 
and destinictiveness of war are intensified by our imagina- 
tion. Perhaps war seems more horrible to us than to the 
actual participants. We become too timorous. The weaker 
minds among us become perverted. They go about in a 
frenzy preaching the maintenance of peace at all hazards, 
even at the price of a sacrific-e of national rights and an aban- 
donment of national honor. But the other side of war they 
do not see. 

War is not all destruction. Every American must regard 
the Revolutionary War as essentially a constructive event. 
A good many men were killed. A good deal of property was 
destroyed. There Avas much suffering from cold and hunger. 
But civilization was immeasurably advanced. Democracy 
was then first established. The world has since been a vastly 
better place in which to live than otherwise it would have 
been. 

So as to our wars with the Indians. In those wars we 
virtually extinguished a race. It will be extinct within a 
few generations. What we did not kill with our superior 
weapons in the field, we either have killed or are fast killing 
with our customs. Our conduct was, however, constructive, 
not destructive, in the broad sense. Any other view would 



11 

require the conclusion that it were better for the world that 
this continent shonkl now be a wilderness instead of what 
it is. 

The war between the States, all are now agreed, was worth 
all it cost in blood, suffering- and treasure. Our war with 
Spain was a great constructive process, notwithstanding 
quite a number of men were killed by bullets and died of 
disease. Civilization has been advanced far beyond what 
it would have been had the war between the States, and our 
war Avith Spain, not occurred. Our war with Spain took us 
into the tropics. Being there, we had to preserve the health 
of our soldiers. That necessity led us to find out the cause 
and prevention of yellow fever. That discovery rendered 
possible the digging of the Panama Canal which theretofore 
had been, and had mastery over yellow fever not been ob- 
tained, would have continued to be, impossible. 

There is another aspect in which war is not all bad. It 
develops and strengthens the character of a nation. The 
nations of Europe whatever their human and material suf- 
ferings, have been strengthened in things of the spirit by 
their experience in war. Character is strengthened, in na- 
tions as in men, by meeting life under hard and dangerous 
conditions. After the war shall have ended, we must face 
in the struggles of peace a diiferent Europe from that of the 
past. Nothing we can do in the way of self-discipline will 
bring us benefits in national moral upbuilding equal to what 
the European nations will gain by their experience in war. 
"We can, however, measurably approach those benefits by es- 
tablishing universal compulsory military service. 

Universal compulsory military service would facilitate the 
merging of the various elements of our j)opulation into a 
unified whole. It would give us national solidarity. It 
would awaken us to a sense of individual responsibility to 
the government. It would teach us orderly co-operation, 



12 

and the necessity therefor, in tlie nation's behalf. It would 
quicken the national conscience and stiffen the national will. 
It would make us readier to sacrifice individual profit and 
advantage for the common welfare. Compulsory military 
service would build up our national pride. We should wish 
to become as great and powerful as any other nation. We 
should acquire a concrete national ideal, a specific national 
purpose, of which we now are sadly lacking. Military serv- 
ice fosters frugality. It makes for plainness and simplicity. 
It teaches men to conserve their energies against the day of 
need. It promotes science and invention as well for purposes 
of conservation as destruction. It fosters self-reliance, 
readiness of decision, self-respect and courage. It gives 
men full mastery of their bodies, and a knowledge of how to 
care for their health. It increases the capacity of men for 
every kind of work whether with tlieir bodies or their minds. 
We shall need the increased efficiency, which military train- 
ing alone can give us, if, after the present war shall have 
ended, we are to compete successfully in peaceful rivalries 
with the battle disciplined peoples with whom we must live. 

Would that the nation might hear from lips as eloquent as 
Demosthenes', the advice which he gave the Athenians. ''Yet, 
Athenians," said the great Greek orator in Athens' darkest 
hour, "yet is there time! And there is one manner in which 
you can recover your greatness, or, dying, fall worthy of 
your past at Marathon and Salamis. Yet, Athenians, you 
. have it in your power ; and the manner of it is this. Cease 
to hire your armies. Go yourselves, every man of you, and 
stand in the ranks; and either a victory beyond all victories 
in its glory awaits you, or, falling, you shall fall greatly and 
worthy of your past. ' ' 

We must shake off our slothfulness. We must discipline 
ourselves. We must reconsecrate ourselves to our 
countrv's service. We must ourselves arm and stand in the 



13 

ranks as Americans should. We must cease to hire onr 
armies. Then shall we be able to preserve an honorable 
peace. Then shall we be respected and prosperous in times 
of peace. Then, if war shall come, shall we be able forever 
to defend and maintain tlie liberty and independence which 
Washington, under Providence, bestowed upon us. We can- 
not, without shame, do less. 







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